Going Somewhere

So, it's been a while since I've posted anything here. What's up? How's it going? Anything new in your life? My answer, off the cuff would be, "Nope. Not much new here." If you want a deeper, non-surfacey (yes I just created that word) response, I would say: "You have no idea." I am technically a sophomore in college, but due to my class load I'm a junior. At this point, one would imagine that I have everything figured out, or at least some sort of plan. As a matter of fact, I don't! Ever since my return from India, I've felt like my world has gone a tad Topsy-turvey. I was so sure that the path I'd chosen was the one God had chosen for me. Now I'm questioning my purpose, or rather the purpose of "the plan". "What is "the plan"?" you might ask? Well....the short of it is this: I was supposed to go to school get my BA in Music (History), then at the end of my Sophomore year apply for the dual-...

So today there was a 10am New Year's Day service. We sang 3 or 4 songs and the last 2 were one's with motions. The kids favorite was "Yes Lord (I'm Trading...)". We wore our punjabi's to it. Apparently if you're wearing the same color as someone else you pinch them. After the service we went back and ate lunch (sweet rice and lentil's-only served on New Year's Day-and papaya) which was followed by a game of Nerds (it was my 1st time playing it, it's kind of like Dutch Blitz). Allison and I were then going to go hang with the youngers, but instead the older girls did henna/painted our nails in the compound courtyard. Pretty soon each of us girls had about 25-30 girls aroudn us, and out of that group there were 4-6 girls who "attached" themselves to us. I quickly forgot the first 10 times the names, but I go better as it went along. Tiripathuma's name I still butcher. These girls are so sweet and shy (at least most of them are...)...

Today is New Year's Eve and I almost forgot. We have finally arrived at the compound. The 7 hr. train ride turned out to only be a 5 hour train ride (Praise God!) and the 2 hour car ride felt more like 1 1/2 hours. It's so weird without having a clock everywhere because now my sense of time is so off! I didn't sleep well last night; I was up every hour. The train ride, to say the least, was very interesting. There were all types of Indians, ranging from poor to pretty well off. There were several beggars that went around-a pregnant woman and her son, a boy with a stub of an arm, an elderly woman, and others like it. I couldn't give them anything. The fields were never completely empty. There was either water buffalo, people, birds, etc. It was humid but the fans and open windows made things bearable. The coolest part was when (while the train was moving) we got to stand in the open doorway and catch a wonderful "breeze." There were food, drink, dessert/snack...

So our morning was supposed to have started off at 7:45am so we could meet for prayer at 8:15am and eat breakfast together. Instead, we wake up to someone knocking on our door at 9am. It was Dee. In a matter of 5 min. (I'm not even joking) we were dressed, semi-make-uped, and downstairs. I was so embarrassed! Then after a quick breacky (we did have to take our malaria pills) we went in the van to go to the beach, St. Thomas' shrine/church, the Snake Museum/Zoo (there were other reptiles present as well), and the place where St. Thomas last preached. The beach was a wonderful and short experience. There was at least a mile of sand to the beach and then it was a mild drop-off to the water. People live on the beach here. It was so humid and many of them were laying under these plank "beds" that were on stilts. There are 4 pictures that I will take away from that experience. There was a wall type thing on stilts  |----| and a man with his toddler were just sitting in the ...